By Sabrina Schnur
The owner and an employee of a Las Vegas senior facility were arrested on elderly abuse charges this month.
Ravette Taylor and Richard Cisneros, who were arrested Jan. 20, are each charged with seven counts of abuse of an older or vulnerable person, according to court records.
A certified nurse’s assistant who previously worked at “The Ohana Independent Living Home” called police Jan. 13 to report two elderly women were being sexually abused, beaten and overmedicated at the senior care facility, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department.
Police found eight residents, including a man suffering from Parkinson’s disease who was immobile, another man who was blind, deaf and suffering from dementia and six women suffering from advanced dementia. Taylor told police that neither she nor any employees had training in the medical field.
In her interview with police, Taylor, the owner, said she bought the home from a registered nurse in 2018.
She told police she didn’t get the property registered as a group home, which would allow her to care for patients with advanced needs, because the fire department told her that getting the home up to code would cost $16,000. Instead, she registered it as an independent living facility.
“She admitted she was aware the residents needed a high level of care and admitted her business was not providing the care required,” police said in the report.
“When asked she stated she had never presented herself as a medical professional to the social workers at the hospital but had never told the social workers that the prior owner was no longer associated with the business and that (Taylor) was not a medical professional,” the report continued.
Cisneros told police he was not familiar with caring for patients who are immobile and was unsure of how often to change their positions to prevent bedsores. He said he usually moved patients once at the beginning and end of his shift.
Police redacted the location of the home in the report, and the secretary of state’s business licensing department had no record of the facility.
Cisneros was released without bail, and
Taylor was released after posting bail. The two are scheduled to appear
in court again Feb. 22.
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